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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

father's day special: kevin o'rourke

Kevin O’Rourke is a
writer and editor living in Philadelphia. He studied visual arts at Kenyon
College and creative writing at the University of Minnesota. His work has been
published in Seneca Review, Word For / Word, and Midway
Journal, to name a few. He is also editor of The Hairsplitter.

Tell us about your relationship to your art.

This is a very complicated
question, so I’ll give you a brief history: I started out a visual artist, and
only began to move fully toward writing once I was an adult. As a kid I spent
an inordinate amount of time drawing & painting & making art of one
kind or another, so it was only natural that I ended up an art major (focused
on video and video installation) as an undergraduate. For years I assumed I
would be, or at least would attempt to be, a working visual artist. I also
nearly went to grad school for visual art.

Then I moved to New York
and began working for an art book publishing company and found that making art,
particularly gear-heavy art like video, outside of the academy’s support was
difficult, so I found myself writing more and more. Which was something I’d
always done—I got to study under Saskia Hamilton at Kenyon!—but prior to that
rough, soul-searching time in New York had thought of writing as a secondary
interest.

So long story short, I now
make my living writing and editing, and in what little spare time I find at
night after my son goes to bed, work on my own stuff and edit a journal of
reviews and essays.

What's a project that has been exciting you lately?

The Hairsplitter, which is the aforementioned journal of reviews and
essays. Yes, it’s been a lot of work, but it’s great fun to work with so many
great, exciting writers.

Tell us a little of your fatherhood journey.

I wouldn’t call it a
journey so much as a drawn-out process of stumbling forward. We didn’t really
plan to have a son, but we did, and he’s a joy. I will say I don’t miss the
very early days, when I was terrified all of the time & felt like I didn’t
know how to do a thing.

What are some crucial elements of your process? How
has that changed since having children?

I’ve always written
sporadically and in intense bursts, and having a kid has only made that more
the case. Finding the time to sit down and really edit work or work on putting
together a manuscript has been difficult. As has even submitting work, which we
all know can take ages!

What are some of the ways your family
and your art interact?

Well, they don’t, not
really. I certainly write about my family, but much of my work is abstract or
at least approaches things from an angle (so to speak), so my writing is rarely
“about” my family. As in, I rarely sit down to write a piece about a specific
person or topic (such as a sonnet). I prefer to nibble at the edges of things.
I’m also terribly self-concerned and narcissistic.

Do you find your attitude towards your art might be
different because of your parenting / has it changed since you became a parent?

Yes and no. I do find
myself wondering what my son might think of my work were he to read it in the
future.

Are your children ever subjects in your art?

No, and
for no particular reason. Though vague “children” have worked their way in, but
I think of the things I write about—inner, crazy head space type things, and
abstract meandering thoughts on art, etc.—and my son as inhabiting different
spaces. But this is not to say that I won’t someday write about him. In fact,
I’m sure I will, much to his chagrin.

Aside from the obvious need of more time, what has been one
of the most difficult obstacles you’ve had in regards to parenting and your
art?

Switching modes of living:
switching from being very much in the world & concerned with diapers and
day care and watching him try to walk and then trying to write and be quiet and
calm and wow, where did the day go again I’m exhausted?

In turn, what are some of the saving graces?

Children are a joy, even
if they fill us with dread much of the time. Having a shouting little pug of
joy in my life has, on the whole, been rather nice. But give me a few years.

How do you escape?

Whiskey? Seriously though:
exercise (I ride my bike to work through often bananas urban traffic, and
that’s a rush) and reading pulpy fiction at night before bed. I am rereading
the whole George R. R. Martin saga, because I find reading books like that akin
to dunking my head in ice cold water on a hot day.

photo credit: Ellen Hurst

What advice do you have for expectant fathers in your
field?

When in doubt, stick to
Dr. Seuss. There’s a reason his books are so well-loved, though you too might
hate Fox in Socks after reading it
several hundred times. Also that having kids makes you a fully realized, fully
formed adult person (as in you now get all your parents’ concerns) and if one
really wants to be a writer one should endeavor to accrue as all-encompassing a
view of one’s world as possible.